Alcala expects tuna output rebound with ban lifting

May 10, 2012|James Konstantin Galvez, The Manila Times, Philippines

The Philippines expects declining tuna production to bounce back strong this year after the Western and Central Pacific Commission (WCPFC) partially lifted the two-year tuna fishing ban in the so-called High Seas Pocket 1, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said that this development would not have been possible if not for the hard work undertaken by the Philippine inter-agency delegation, which proposed a "Special Management Area in the High Seas Pocket 1.

"With this development, we are optimistic that somehow the declining trend in tuna fish catch could bounce back to its 2010 level," he added.

Based on records, tuna production in the country dropped to 503,000 metric tons last year from 575,000 MT in 2010. The WCPFC imposed the ban on tuna fishing in certain pockets of the high seas in the Pacific Ocean to protect the remaining population of the yellow fin and big-eye tuna. The ban took effect on January 1, 2010, and was supposed to have expired on December 31, 2011.

Lawyer Asis Perez, director of the DA-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said that in the next two months, upon compliance of relevant requirements, some 36 traditional tuna fishers--particularly fishing vessels for fresh and chilled tuna--could start operating in the aforementioned Special Management Area.

He said that in compliance with the WCPFC management measures, the country's access to the special management area will only be limited to traditional fresh and ice chilled fishing vessels operating as a group.

Perez added that among the conditions to be complied with by local fishermen include the installation of automatic local communicator in their vessels, application for international fishing permits and the hiring of a Fisheries Observer on-board the vessel.

The High Seas Pocket 1 covers the high seas bounded by the Exclusive Economic Zones or EEZs of the Federated States of Micronesia to the north and east, Republic of Palau to the west, and Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to the south. It is a traditional fishing area for the Philippine distant water tuna fishing fleet.

The Philippines pushed for access to a portion of the high seas in the Pacific because of "increasing fishing pressures in the territorial waters and Philippine EEZ as a result of the closure of the high seas."

In its position paper, the Philippines stressed that the territorial waters and EEZ of the Philippines are an "important" spawning ground of tunas and tuna-like species. Fishing pressures from the closure of the high seas will deplete the juveniles of these tuna and tuna-like species stock.

A tuna expert from the World Wildlife Fund, Dr. Jose Ingles, indicated that the continued catching of large proportions of juvenile tunas does not support an effective and sustainable tuna industry. Ingles pointed out in a paper he co-authored on "Solving the Juvenile Tuna Dilemma" that if the juvenile tuna could grow to maturity and be caught after another year--the value would be increase by as much as three times.

The Philippines will host the next meeting of the WCPFC in Manila before the year ends. Close to 500 delegates from its 25-member countries and other organizations are expected to participate in the gathering.